oekaki thumbnails discussion {READ FIRST POST}

[pecos]

while most of what i've been wanting to say has already been said by those above me, i would like to comment on a few things.

@jasps has pointed out in his post that his comments have been removed from threads on multiple occasions, as have mine and those of a few other members. all of these removed comments (that i've seen) have been related to locked oekaki threads, so i'm a bit confused as to why these messages are being deleted. this topic as a whole is not sensitive whatsoever. it is not a dispute between site users either since the strong majority of the art community on this platform are upset with the recent strictness of this rule.

i am not saying that this rule should be removed. in fact, i do think that it needs to stay in place. however the way that it has been executed is disappointing, to put it simply. artists across forums are having threads locked without warning, unable to access their images without running into the pink lock icon. i personally do not have a problem with these topics being locked. my quarrel is with the massive icon that is being placed over these pieces. it completely destroys the drawing, and there is no way to remove it without contacting a staff member, which is a hassle that an artist should NOT have to go through in order to retrieve their original piece. if this icon were sized down and put into a corner, that could help to some extent. i would just like to see a way for the artist to grab an original reference without the help of a staff member.

i would also like to comment on my own oekaki post, which was locked earlier this afternoon. it contains colored, shaded doodles with a bit of text, and absolutely no artwork beneath the cover. as far as i'm aware, this drawing did not violate any site rules, so i'm honestly dumbfounded. i would be lying if i said that i was not shocked when i discovered that it had been locked. i also posted a completely separate drawing today that was deleted altogether. i received no message from a staff member saying why this happened. i would understand a nsfw drawing being taken down (obviously), but this? really?

@roheil has also mentioned a very important detail to all of this. c4c submissions that were completed off-oekaki have been locked, but i have seen no changes to the off-oekaki adoptables that have been flooding the independent/one-off forum recently. there are many instances where an artist has drawn uncolored, unshaded doodles and sold them without facing the risk of a thread being locked. egg adopts are also most often purchased through this site, but completed on a program other than oekaki.

saying that these off-oekaki drawings are "spamming the oekaki forums" also seems a bit ridiculous. i've heard no complaints from anyone so far about people posting off-site drawings beneath oekaki covers. i literally do not care if there's a simple black-and-white doodle in the art forums. it's honestly more annoying to see the massive lock icon.

i'll be saving this message in case it is deleted.

[hypnowave]

I'm just looking at everything from a distance and I don't really want to say much since people have already brought up some issues that I have with the whole thing.
I do just want to say that I have seen some oekaki posts that are just. Locked? No edit footnote from a mod or anything, either. Just,,, locked. And these are quite recent as well. Is there any reason for this, or??

I feel honestly it's the mods giving up on explaining. Since they're locking SO many things they're probably tired of giving a reason and just smacking down that lock and calling it a day

That doesn't feel like it's right, though.
I know users of said posts w/o a note/edit footnote/idk what to call it, and as far as I know, they haven't been messaged about it. It just feels like you're leaving your users in the dust all confused about what they could have done that was wrong?

seconding this, it's a mod's job to not only maintain order on the site but also make sure that they can justify what they're doing. if a reason isn't given for a locked post then that just makes it harder for the user in question to understand what sort of behavior they have to avoid in order to prevent getting a locked thread in the future.

[shortstop]

I'm holding out for some kind of announcement from the staff, though at this point I'm not sure if it'll happen. I'd hope they won't wait until the start of month update to say something, but who's to say. Staff really have taken more and more steps back from the site over the years, and the ones who are left seem so overwhelmed it's no wonder there's no enforcement consistency. Perhaps the best way to come to some kind of a solution is a moderation team overhaul? It's been pretty eye-opening going through this thread and seeing all the examples of rule-enforcement inconsistency and problems with ChickenPaint.

[dreamyEnding]

CS is New Zealand based right? I don't know what copyright laws are like there so I don't know if they could get fined or anything.
But! The fact that off-oekaki galleries already are a thing means that they already assessed whatever risk there is and decided to allow a place to upload possibly stolen art anyway. Not that they're encouraging it in anyway, but the risk is already there? Bah you get what I mean.

And yeah, Oekaki is just, finicky. I remember my laptop updated and it became so unusable that I stopped using oekaki for 6 months and then really only used it for adoptable edits until I got a completely new computer like a year later. Even now my pen will randomly stop tracking and I have to use a mouse for any layer moving or scrolling around the canvas. And I have to jack the smoothing waaaay up and deal with the lag to draw at all lol.

[Purgatory K9]

ehhhh not gonna add too much to the convo but if we could at least be pm’d the original piece without the lock itd be a lot more helpful ;; kinda sucks that we just. lose the art completely when the lock is added

I second this! This is all I’ll be saying as well.

[shortstop]

The current version of "ChickenPaint" hasn't been updated since 2016. It used to be worse actually, haha. That being said, the base program is open source so it would take a staff member making code changes to improve it. As far as I'm aware, the only one with that ability is Nick, seeing as they are the ones responsible for all of the updates so far. I dunno if it would be reasonable for them to get someone else on the team to help improve the program. People usually charge for that kind of thing.

[ford]

i also have examples of covers not being locked/the rule not being enforced, as recent as the 9th of this month.

november 9th
november 8th
september 4th

[samㅤ]

yeah no that fully shaded and coloured drawing being locked was not okay
if there was an issue, just tell them to remove the text or simply link to the full design without imbedding it in the post (as i have done in the past and been fine)

also the fact that the lock can't be removed is,, not good?? thats still someones art. if it's not vulgar then why make it inaccessible.

[Cr0wz]

ehhhh not gonna add too much to the convo but if we could at least be pm’d the original piece without the lock itd be a lot more helpful ;; kinda sucks that we just. lose the art completely when the lock is added

I second this! This is all I’ll be saying as well.

Yes! Please, If the art gets locked please let the original artist save a copy to their computer or something. Like I know for a fact some of those people would like their pieces and/or sketches back. I understand the ones that are only words, but if there's any amount of art it should be somehow get access to their art. Like this one, and many others. If the mods are going to be locking so so many they won't have time to give each artist a screenshot back.

[Lucida]

ehhhh not gonna add too much to the convo but if we could at least be pm’d the original piece without the lock itd be a lot more helpful ;; kinda sucks that we just. lose the art completely when the lock is added

I second this! This is all I’ll be saying as well.

Yes! Please, If the art gets locked please let the original artist save a copy to their computer or something. Like I know for a fact some of those people would like their pieces and/or sketches back. I understand the ones that are only words, but if there's any amount of art it should be somehow get access to their art. Like this one, and many others. If the mods are going to be locking so so many they won't have time to give each artist a screenshot back.

From what was reported by others, you just have to send a ticket to get the art pieces original file. But I wouldn't quote me on that, seeing as I'm only relaying the info I've seen second hand from this forum.